Bioceramics have been developed from bioinert to bioactive or biodegradable materials in the past few decades. However, at present, traditional bioceramics are still mainly used in bone tissue regeneration and dental restoration.
A research team led by Prof. WU Chengtie and Prof. CHANG Jiang at Shanghai Institute of Ceramics of Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a new generation of "black bioceramics," extending the applications from tissue regeneration to disease therapy, is presented. Black bioceramics, through magnesium thermal reduction of traditional white ceramics, including silicate-based (e.g., CaSiO3 , MgSiO3 ) and phosphate-based (e.g., Ca3 (PO4 )2 , Ca5 (PO4 )3 (OH)), are successfully synthesized. Due to the presence of oxygen vacancies and structural defects, the black bioceramics possess photothermal functionality while maintaining their initial high bioactivity and regenerative capacity. These black bioceramics show excellent photothermal antitumor effects for both skin and bone tumors. At the same time, they have significantly improved bioactivity for skin/bone tissue repair in vitro and in vivo. These fascinating properties award the black bioceramics with profound applications in both tumor therapy and tissue regeneration, which should greatly promote the scientific relevance and clinical application of bioceramics, representing a promising new direction of cell-instructive biomaterials.
This work was published recently in Advanced Materials entitled "lack Bioceramics: Combining Regeneration with Therapy". Dr. WANG Xiaocheng graduated from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences is the first author, whose supervisor is Prof. WU Chengtie.
